935 F.

2d 268
Unpublished Disposition

NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of

unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing
res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires
service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth
Circuit.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Bekir VURAL, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 91-5630.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Submitted May 6, 1991.
Decided May 31, 1991.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia, at Alexandria. Claude M. Hilton, District Judge. (CR-90-139-A)
John C. Rand, Alexandria, Va., for appellant.
Henry E. Hudson, United States Attorney, Liam O'Grady, Assistant
United States Attorney, Alexandria, Va., for appellee.
E.D.Va.
AFFIRMED.
Before DONALD RUSSELL, WILKINSON and WILKINS, Circuit
Judges.
PER CURIAM:

Bekir Vural was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to import heroin (21 U.S.C.
Secs. 952 & 963) and conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine (21 U.S.C.
Sec. 846), distribution of heroin (21 U.S.C. Sec. 841 & 2), and threatening a
federal law enforcement officer (18 U.S.C. Sec. 115(a)(1)). He appeals his

convictions and sentence, contending that the district court erred in denying his
motion for acquittal and in determining that the conspiracy involved over 100
kilograms of heroin. We affirm.
2

Vural was a member of a conspiracy whose purpose was to import heroin from
Turkey into the United States for distribution. He was active for about six
months in introducing an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer into the
conspiracy and in attempting to set up purchases for the agent. By December
1988, the agent had progressed to dealing directly with other members of the
conspiracy.

Vural moved for acquittal at the close of the government's evidence on the
ground that he had withdrawn from the conspiracy in January 1989 and,
therefore, none of the drugs sold or negotiated from that date until his arrest
later in 1989 could be attributed to him. This Court has held, in United States v.
Urbanik, 801 F.2d 692, 697 (4th Cir.1986), that in order to show withdrawal
from a conspiracy a defendant must show that he acted to defeat or disallow the
purposes of the conspiracy. Had Vural produced such evidence, the question of
his withdrawal would have been one for the jury to decide. But no such
evidence was produced. Vural relied on the record of a conversation with the
agent in January 1989 in which he repeatedly said that he wanted to forget the
whole thing. However, in the same conversation, he complained about being
cut out of a recent deal, agreed to take a commission on any future deals and
said he would arrange another purchase for the agent. Although he did not do
anything significant in the conspiracy after that, he took no action which would
demonstrate actual withdrawal.

The district court's determination of the amount of drugs involved in the

conspiracy is a factual finding reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard.
United States v. Vinson, 886 F.2d 740 (4th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 58
U.S.L.W. 3468 (U.S.1990). In view of the agent's testimony about amounts
purchased and negotiated, we cannot say that the district court was in error in
finding that over 100 kilograms of cocaine were involved.

We therefore affirm the conviction and sentence. We dispense with oral

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in
the materials before the Court and argument would not aid the decisional
process.

AFFIRMED.